The Furry Set of Wings
by legolasgreenleaf14
Summary: *Originally titled The Other Set of Wings* Harper, 15, was intentionally left behind when the flock was rescued by Jeb. She longs to be free, but in her heart, she knows that she'll be cooped up forever, since she's part Avian, part wolf, and part human. When she gets the opportunity to be free, will she take it?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is a revised version of The Other Set of Wings. I had it up, then decided to take it down due to the terrible plot it originally had. Here you go!**

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Chapter 1

"Get in there," Tony, one of the rougher scientists, hissed, throwing me into one of the medium crates. Landing hard on back, a slight pop was heard. Groaning, I sat up, feeling the small of my back with the palm of my hand, careful to avoid my sore wings. My back popped back into place. My eyes followed Tony's back as he left the lab. This was only part of my life, but don't be fooled, the rest of my life wasn't great either. It certainly wasn't going to get better, and Jeb wasn't going to risk rescuing me after almost getting fired for supposedly rescuing the flock.

Oh Jeb, you don't know what power I hold over your head. I could bring your whole world crumbling. I know you did it, because I was there. You rescued them during the night. You thought everyone was asleep. And you were partially correct. Everyone was asleep. Everyone, except me. I saw you lead them out of their crates, and out of the lab. You could have rescued me, but you didn't. You didn't even look my way.

Anger hit me like a wave. Gritting my teeth, I growled, clenching my fists. He wasn't going to rescue me. No one was. I was a failure.

You see, I'm not human. I'm not even an Avian American, but a hopeless failure. I was here before Max and the flock were, making me older than anyone in the flock. My age was only a rough estimate, though, but then again, so was most of my life.

I remember the day my parents sold me. A tike, only 3 years old, sold to an institution. I was behind the sofa, cowering. I didn't like the way the strange men smelled. The look of pure delight on my mother's face when she received the check would forever haunt me. My father, gazing lovingly at the amount of money in his hand, was the only thing he saw when I was hauled away.

The trip to the lab was a semi-short one, only about an hour long. I was in a crate the whole ride. No one looked at me. No one said anything. Inside, I knew the men were pleased with themselves. I was the product that they wanted to buy, and they got me.

When we arrived, I was given multiple shots. No one comforted me when I cried. They stripped me of my name, giving me a series of numbers instead. 24614 was the number. I was shoved in a crate after the shots. None of the other test subjects said anything to me, but back then, there weren't many others.

After the first week, I had been through 5 surgeries, and they were already planning on inserting avian genes into my blood. Then, they finally operated with the DNA. I remember countless nights curled up in a cage, moaning. The wings appeared first, then my senses began enhancing. I remember when the wings first showed up. The scientists were crying with joy. Literal tears spilled down their faces, and grins were painted on their faces. Now, I remember the scene quite differently. I was curled up on the ground, bawling, screaming out of agony, as the skin on my back split open, and the first few feathers poked through my back. My new wings had hurt like heck for a few months. To this day even, they throb every now and then.

I was left alone for a few days, to recover. Then, they wanted to see how I would react to the DNA of a wolf. You guessed it, not only am I a flying human, I'm part wolf. The wolf part wasn't nearly as successful as the avian one. I reacted quite differently to it. I stayed in a wolf's body for 2 years, snarling and biting anyone who got near me. That's when they began testing others with wolf genes. They wanted to see if they could perfect me, the failure.

After my two years of agony as a wolf, I began showing human signs again. The scientists began paying more attention to me. It took a full 6 months, but I was human again. They had to re teach me English, which took another 6 months. Now, I morph, meaning I turn into a wolf. It happens whenever I get really emotional, or, occasionally, whenever there is a new moon. Yes, a new moon, not a full one. Morphing was awful in the beginning. The morphing phase had hurt, like all of very skin was splitting open. It was more painful than getting wings grafted onto my back. Fur would grow, and I would completely lose any common sense. When the fur would grow, it grew over my wings, making it so I couldn't fly anymore. Then, I would become a human with wings after I turned back into a human.

I had a fierce she-wolf inside me when I was younger. I don't have the heart to recall all that I did at my young age. These days, though, I've gotten better with her. I've managed to control my inner-wolf. She isn't as fierce as she once was. I've tamed her.

Shaking my head free of my thoughts, I crawled around in a circle three times, getting ready to fall asleep for the night. All was peaceful for a few minutes, until I was rudely interrupted by the doors to the lab opening. Tony walked in again, and I snarled, a growl rumbling in my throat. Thankfully, Tony didn't acknowledge me. He just simply shoved two small girls into an even smaller crates.

"Here they are." Tony was grinning evilly. One of the children was whimpering up a storm, while the other one was sitting quietly. Tony turned to the one whimpering, and slapped her face. "Quiet you!" Tears welled up in the girl's eyes.

"These are them?" Bill, another scientist, asked. He was nicer than Tony. I mean, he would actually feed us.

"Yup." Tony nodded, grinning like a crazed mental asylum patient.

I looked over at the newbies. I didn't know either one, so I turned away from them. The two scientists left the lab, leaving us freaks to our business. I wished all were quiet, but, thanks to the wonderful scientists who grafted wolf genes into me, I heard every word from the newbies.

The younger of the little girls was asking the other girl questions. "Why am I here?"

"There's no easy way to tell you this. You're about to become an experiment." The other replied, sighing. It was clear that the older of the girls had been here before. The younger girl began whimpering. I covered my ears, the high pitched sound ringing in my sensitive ears.

"Shut up," Beta growled. Beta was a werewolf like me, except he doesn't have wings. I was there first wolf experiment, but one of their later bird ones. They had been testing those out for a long while.

My head snapped up before I could stop it. "Leave them alone, Beta." My eyes narrowed in his direction.

"You mind your own business, _Omega_." Beta retorted, sneering when he said Omega. My name wasn't really Omega, that's only what Beta called me.

Beta wasn't my favorite pup in the litter, but he was the only one even similar to me. There had been three of us wolves, but Snarl, the last one, was destroyed maliciously when he killed about a quarter of the scientists here. Snarl was one of the greatest wolves I've ever seen.

Anyway, about Beta. Beta is special. He was infused with wolf DNA, and then was fused with a bit of tiger. His fangs are sharp and long, his muscles are large and toned. The fur upon his back is stripped, and he moves silently, almost like a shadow. Painful memories of him and I training against each other, when we were trying to kill each other, rushed back to me, and I shuddered. They weren't ones I wanted to relive.

"You know my name, so say it right." I growled, getting frustrated with the stupidity of Beta. I knew I shouldn't let him get on my nerves so easily, but it was hard.

Beta responded in a tone dripping with mock sincerity. "Oh, I'm so sorry, but you aren't important enough to me. I don't care about what your name is."

"Cut it out, Beta." I growled again.

Beta sighed. "I know you won't leave me alone until I say it, so here I go. Sorry, _Harper_."

I smiled, feeling pleased. It had been a long time since I had heard my name, the one with letters, not numbers, said aloud. Even though it was Beta who said it, it still lulled me into a semi-happy dream that night.

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**AN: I've never seen a story about a werewolf bird-kid, so I hope I'm not copying anyone. If I'm copying anyone, though, it would be one of my friends who is writing a piece about only werewolves (she came up with the idea, so I can't post it here. That, and I would need her permission). Her story kind of inspired me to change it in this way.**

**By the way, if I made a mistake, please let me know! Thanks! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, or werewolves.**

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Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning with sunlight filtering through my eyelids. Blinking sleep out of my eyes, I yawned. As I got adjusted to the scenery around me, I stopped short.

I never woke up to sunlight.

Now wide awake, I flung myself into a fighting position, fists drawn. I narrowed my eyes, searching for someone. Anyone.

But, no one was there. I lowered my guard the tiniest, and relaxed my tense muscles. A path was set before me. Curiosity got the better of me, and I followed it.

It led deep into a forest. But, it wasn't your normal, happy forest. This was strangely quiet. No birds chirped, and there was no breeze.

A twig behind me cracked. Whirling around, I drew my fists back up to my chin, in an on-guard position.

Before me, with an evil cackle on his face, stood Beta.

"What do you want, Beta?" I snarled.

He chuckled. "My dear, pathetic Omega. This isn't about what I want. It's about what you are going to want. Which, if you don't know what yet, is death. Death, at my paws."

My eyes narrowed into slits. "That'll never happen." I tried sounding tough, but it was all in vain. Beta usually always had defeated me in training.

"You're afraid." Beta cackled. "I can see it in your eyes."

"You're trying to prove yourself!" I blurted out. That wasn't entirely true. I mean, who didn't? But Beta didn't need to prove himself, that was just the first thing that had come to mind.

Beta snarled as if that had harmed him. He began to show signs of morphing, like his teeth grew longer and sharper, and he began to shrink to four paws.

In any other circumstance, I would have faltered, since Beta was never fazed by any of my attempts at insults. Satisfaction grew in my stomach, feeding my wolf. She lapped it up, and took control.

I felt myself shrinking, and my skin split, revealing fur. My nose became a snout, and my tail appeared behind me. After a few seconds, I was a glimmering, white, she-wolf. My electric blue eyes glowed in the forest gloom.

Beta's eyes narrowed, and began growling in the native tongue of wolves. "You know you won't win if we fight now."

"You don't have the gift of foresight. No one does. You don't know the outcome of this battle." I snarled back.

Beta's ears flattened, and he drew back his lips. I copied him, keeping my weight lower to the ground. He darted forth, nipping at my side. He only grazed my fur, but it was enough to tick me off.

I flew at him, barreling him over. He fell to his side, yipping. I got in his face. "You sure about the winner yet?"

He swiped a paw at me. Catching my cheek, he drew blood as three red streaks appeared.

I whimpered for a second. In that second, Beta stood up, knocked me over, stood on top of me, and growled in my face. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure." He lunged for my throat.

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Sweat poured off of my face as I sat up. I was gasping for air.

"What was it this time? Evil doughnuts?" Beta sniggered. I glared at him, my breath still coming in ragged gasps. He chuckled. "I thought so. You're so weak."

I sighed, turning away from his cruel remarks.

"Coward. You sick, weak, coward." Beta snarled.

If only they would let us fight each other again. I would rip his fur off his hide.

Beta finally shut up when the lab door opened. Tony strolled in, an evil glint in his eye. He looked like he was coming to my cage. I held my breath, my whole body tense. A sigh escaped my lips when he stopped at a cage in front of my cell, and opened it up. Bending down, he reached into the cage that held the new girl. She began crying and tried to get away when Tony began muttering softly to her.

"No! Let me go! Mommy!" She cried.

Tony had enough. "Shut up, you miserable child!" He slapped her hard across her face. Her loud cries quickly changed to meager whimpers. In an act of submission, she went limp, and Tony carried her easily out of her cage. He got close to her ear, and muttered. "Your mommy isn't going to save you now. Your mommy is dead."

I could see small tears well up in the girls eyes as she was led out of the lab.

"So, what's she going to be?" Another freak, Night, asked. Night is part fox. Though, something weird happened, and her fur is black. So, she's called Night.

"A werewolf." The other new girl said meekly.

My blood ran cold. "Why are they running more? I thought that program was shut down!"

Beta, for once, agreed with me. "It'll kill the girl! She isn't strong enough."

"They reopened it after finding something wrong with Snarl, or something like that." She continued, her voice wavering.

Something about the way she talked threw me. "How do you know so much about this?" My voice raised to almost shouting level. "Who are you?"

She faltered. Her eyes clouded a bit, and she shrank back. Her voice came in a whisper. "I'm so sorry."

"What are you talking about?" I was quickly getting frustrated, and this pathetic kid wasn't helping matters.

Her chest rose as she took in a deep breath. "It's me, Angel."

Angel!? The little rat from the group of flying bird kids? The one who told Jeb to leave me behind? I growled in disgust.

"I don't expect you to like me much after the, uh, incident. All I can say is it was-," she started to say before I butted in.

"What? For the better? You disgust me." I hissed as my stomach began turning. That was a warning signal; a signal of morphing.

_Calm down a bit. _I told myself, sighing.

"I knew you wouldn't understand." Her sigh was filled with defeat.

Rage grew in my mind, but I contained it. I hissed at her. "Leave me alone." I continued ranting, but threw in sarcasm. "Oh, wait, I forgot. You'll read people's minds and tell me I'm alone."

She withdrew, stung. "That's not it at all. You aren't alone."

My eyes narrowed, and the pain in my stomach intensified. "You lie."

"Since when did a telepathic kid lie?" Night called.

"ENOUGH!" Beta yelled. "Telepathic freak, shut up. You too, Night. Omega, you can just die, and everyone will be happy."

"Really? Because you-," Angel started.

Panic shot off of Beta like a wave. "I thought I told you to shut up?" Angel cowered in a corner and let out a whimper. Beta, clearly satisfied, sniffed and retreated to the darkest corner of his cage.

Returning to my business as well, I laid in a corner as well, and waited for my tests to commence.


End file.
